My own experience with video taping an eclipse (or anything for that matter) is rather limited. However, Denise has used a handheld camcorder at several eclipses to record the event. The most precious component has always been the audio where you can hear the reactions of everyone around us. Over the years, as camcorders have gotten better, she has continued to use it in a handheld fashion to get some wonderful video of the eclipse, the environment, chasers, and of course the audio.

Based on her experiences here are some tips. Professional videographers might want to just glance through this material since it is really intended for the casual camcorder operator.

• The camcorder will not focus right away on the eclipse or horizon. The image is just too confusing for the chip to handle! If you want to keep the camera on these items plan to use manual focus, set it ahead of totality, and don’t forget you have it on if you try to get people pictures.
• Digital zoom is kind of useless, stick to the optical zoom. Just like the automatic focus tool, the digital zoom tries its best but don’t expect fantastic results. They will contain all sorts of odd artifacts. We learned this by experiment with lunar photography and the camcorders we’ve used over the years. As we zoomed past the best resolution of the lens new craters formed that were not on any atlas.
• Watch the automatic light meter or just turn it off. As the eclipse sweeps overhead the camera will try to compensate and thus cannot really capture the sudden dark.
• Use the video unit to capture the horizon and changing light as best possible at second contact. You can integrated close ups of the corona at the computer edit station later. A slow sweep of the horizon with eclipse chasers in the foreground makes for fun video after the event. It doesn’t have to be smooth and perfect to be enjoyable by all that were there.
• Do plan to try and capture the diamond ring. As third contact approaches focus on the corona and just watch the show. When the brightness starts to cause the image to bleed (vertical white lines) move the camera away from the sun so you don’t fry anything.
• Keep rolling after totality. It may take a minute or two but the reactions are priceless in many cases. Initially there will be cheers and screams of joy but then the conversation kicks in and everyone talks at a rapid speed with the kind of enthusiasm that only comes with such events.

Video image examples (stills):

by Denise Kramer March 30, 2006 using camcorder (Model Panasonic 3CCD 250G)

Professional quality video of eclipse chase in 2003 at YouTube.

Video with good cameras of 2006 eclipse in Turkey at YouTube.

Video from 1998 eclipse in Caribbean Sea at YouTube.